DE SCULPTURA

ALBERTINA KLOSTERNEUBURG

Breathing, inflating and deflating bodily organs made of light balloon silk rear up and collapse shortly thereafter in a regular rhythm. The large-scale installation Gonflés – dégonflés by French artist Annette Messager takes up the phallic thrust of Franz West’s Sexuality Symbol and contrasts starkly with Kennedy Yanko’s tripartite sculpture made of heavy recycled metal, whose elegant and colorful skins exude a downright painterly quality. This new presentation on the second upper level of Albertina Klosterneuburg maximizes the effect of the prizewinning architecture of Heinz Tesar, with its theme of a wave on the Danube reflected in the abstract undulating lines of works by figures ranging from Hubert Scheibl to Albert Oehlen and on to young shooting stars like British artist Jade Fadojutimi and Chinese artist Xiyao Wang. The overarching motto at Albertina Klosterneuburg in 2025 is De Sculptura.This year’s presentation explores sculpture’s significance as a theme in present-day art and to the museum itself: De Sculptura provides an impression of output by established and younger Austrian and international artists from the ALBERTINA Museum’s collection of contemporary art, which is currently diversifying in terms of featured media with innovative new emphases. 

The presentation shows Erwin Wurm’s Box People and the three-dimensional beings arisen from Eva Beresin’s paintings as well as Claudia Märzendorfer’s knitted, crocheted, and sewn Soft Sculptures and Jonathan Meese’s deformed bronze busts, all of which are part of the ALBERTINA Museum’s holdings. With works made of aluminum, steel, wire, concrete, wood, papier-mâché, wool, and found materials, a sculptural theme extends across all of the exhibition halls and bears witness to sculpture’s contemporary diversity. This collection presentation features not only new sculptural approaches but also instances of interplay with classic art forms such as painting and drawing as well as installation art. Albertina Klosterneuburg is also currently featuring paintings and works on paper in a special focus on output by the Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth—a small act of homage with which we extend our warmest 85th-birthday congratulations to her.

This exhibition includes sculptural works by the following artists: Eva Beresin, Bruno Gironcoli, Karl Karner, Soli Kiani, Basil Kincaid, Elena Koneff, Jonathan Meese, Annette Messager, Nam June Paik, Friedrich Panzer, Rudolf Polanszky, Dieter Roth, Markus Schinwald, Toni Schmale, Julian Schnabel, Tschabalala Self, Erwin Wurm, Kennedy Yanko

Further featured artists: Herbert Brandl, Cecily Brown, Alexandre Diop, Jadé Fadojutimi, Martha Jungwirth, Maria Lassnig, Albert Oehlen, Hubert Scheibl, Liliane Tomasko, Xiyao Wang

Early this summer, the collection presentation in Exhibition Hall 1 will be augmented by Andreas Slominski’s generous donation of a representative group of three-dimensional works including polystyrene reliefs and his famous Traps, which reflect upon social mechanisms.

On view from 17 April until 16 November 2025 at the ALBERTINA KLOSTERNEUBURG museum in Klosterneuburg.